We do not have a common national ideal, expert

The difference between Moldova and the Baltic states is that Moldovan society does not have a common position as regards the national ideal, the majority ethnic group is divided at multiple levels, including into Romanians and Moldovans, and this generates controversy and uncertainty over the geopolitical development goal, expert Ion Tabirta, vice director of the Political Consultancy and Analysis Institute “Politicon”, said in the public debate “The extra-parliamentary opposition: real alternative to the power, game of the power, political game on one’s own. The culture of political relations between the government and extra-parliamentary opposition” that were staged by Info-Prim Neo. Ion Tabirta drew a parallel between Moldova and the Baltic states as concerns the cooperation between the government and the extra-parliamentary opposition in the process of joining the European Union. He said that all the states that joined the EU experienced divergences over their development course. “In all the Central and Southeast European countries, all the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties had a common position as regards the national ideal. We do not have such an ideal. In general, we are a divided society. The difference between us and the Baltic states resides in this. They also have national minorities, but the majority ethnic group is not divided. Consequently, after speaking a lot about the European integration, they started to discuss another geopolitical project in Moldova – the customs union,” stated Ion Tabirta. In another development, the expert said that there are four types of political culture: Anglo-Saxon, European-continental, traditional, and totalitarian. “In Moldova, we have a mixture of the totalitarian culture and the traditional one because none of them is democratic and institutional. The Communist Party has a totalitarian political culture, while the ruling parties have a traditional culture based on personalized relations. We did not have many partnerships between the extra-parliamentary parties and the government. Many of the extra-parliamentary parties appeared before the elections. The ruling parties placed them on a certain political segment in order to attract votes from the opponents,” said Ion Tabirta. The public debate “The extra-parliamentary opposition: real alternative to the power, game of the power, political game on one’s own. The culture of political relations between the government and extra-parliamentary opposition” is the sixth event of the kind organized within the project “Development of Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the German foundation Hanns Seidel.